All is Not Lost

Well Phin fans, last night was a heart breaker.  There was a lot of things that went well for the Dolphins, as well as a lot of things that went bad.  The Final score was the Jets 31 Dolphins 23. 

First lets get the bad out of the way.  The Dolphins were relatively ineffective Running the ball especially on first and second down, which led to them having to somewhat abandon the run.  Ronnie Brown led the team with 54 yards, Ricky Williams had 28.  This leads me to the offensive play calling.  Dan Henning called some interesting plays at crucial times last night.  The one that sticks out to me is the double end around out of the wild cat formation.  This turned out to be a drive killer.   The Dolphins were moving the ball effectively with there base offense, then Henning tried to get cute, and the Jets read it all the way.  On this play the Dolphins lost 6 yards which brought it to 3rd and 16 and led to an eventual punt.  I feel that this type of thing happened a few too many times last night.  finally the Defense, they played well at times but awful at others.  There was absolutely no pass rush, which left the secondary out to dry most of the game.  I felt Cameron Wake was being held virtually the whole game, but I have always been told you have to find a way to get off of your block or hold, Wake could not do that.  koa Misi seemed to be MIA, and the defensive ends had a tough time getting off of their blocks.  Jason Allen went from Hero to Goat in one game.  I am not about to blame him totally, but he did have a rough game, as did the safeties and linebackers that were supposed to be covering Dustin Keller.

The good news is it looks like Henne and Marshall are finally on the same page.  Chad Henne had a career game going 26/44 with 364 yards passing.  He also had 2 touchdown passes.  Brandon Marshall finally was able to bust out and show the Miami fans what he can really do, he had 10 catches for 166 yards and a touchdown.  This duo looks like it could be the real deal heading into the future.  The other Miami receivers also had big games for the Dolphins which is a great thing to see.  Brian Hartline caught 5 passes for 84 yards, and Davone Bess caught 6 passes for 86 yards.  This is all great news as it shows the Dolphins can have a very effective passing attack especially against one of the best defensive teams in the NFL.

Overall it was a tough one to take for the Dolphins.  By no means does this mean they are done, it was only week three.  Next up is another rivalry game against New England in Miami on Monday Night Football.


Phinatic